5 Facebook Page App Ideas Just in Time for Summer

Lots of business owners get really excited during fall and winter, in anticipation of the holidays. People are in the mood to shop, so the the holiday season is a great time to host a contest, acquire new customers and drive lots of sales. But did you know that your business can take advantage of the summer season in the same way?

1. Holiday app

There is something to celebrate once a month during summer: Father’s Day, Graduations, Fourth of July and Labor Day. Plus, there are about a hundred kooky “national holidays” like Sidewalk Egg Frying Day and Embrace Your Geekness Day. I promise I’m not making those last two up! Just Google “July 2013 holidays” and you’ll find a long list of silly celebrations.

The point is, you don’t have to wait for a major holiday or season to come around for your business to join in on the holiday fun. In fact, there are a couple of benefits to celebrating lesser known holidays. During the traditional holiday season, between October and December, your business is like that unknown singer who is trying out for American Idol. It’s difficult to stand out because thousands of other hopefuls are standing in line to try out, too. But if you decide to celebrate “Sidewalk Egg Frying Day,” you stand out in the crowd.

The holiday app concept also works well when businesses choose to celebrate holidays that align well with their industry or brand. Take, for example, the California Avocado Commission For Cinco de Mayo. The California Avocado Commission had a contest app that featured three recipes that used California avocados.

And for National Moscato Day on May 9th, Sutter Home Wine had a save-the-date app where users could spread the word about the day with their friends.

Both of these apps, by the way, were designed using ShortStack by the awesome agency Red Door Interactive. Shout out out to them for their great work and for letting me feature their apps!

2. Summer promo app

If you’re a Groupon or Living Social member you probably notice that around this time of year you start getting loads of deals from tanning salons, swimwear brands, gyms and other exercise facilities. Why? People are getting motivated to get in shape so they look their best for upcoming vacations, reunions, weddings, etcetera.

Now is a great time for businesses to get creative with Summer-themed promotions. If you’re a company that doesn’t want to pay to share your offer, a Facebook app that hosts your deal is a great alternative. Take a note from the upscale San Diego yoga studio Yoga Six. Their app, also designed by the folks over at Red Door Interactive, targets new students who can purchase their special one-month unlimited yoga pass for $79 directly from the app.

3. Facebook exclusive app

According to the ladies I work with at ShortStack, Kate Spade New York does social really, really well — and I agree. Even though I don’t follow Kate Spade New York on Facebook (no offense, Kate, I’m just not a handbag kind of guy!), there’s a reason I often reference their Page: they’re total pros at keeping their fans happy and engaged. Businesses, even outside the fashion and retail industry, can take a lesson from what they do.

Instead of running promotions just around the times of hyped up holidays, Kate Spade NY features a promotion or an exclusive item on their Facebook Page every single month. Only fans of Kate Spade are allowed access to the exclusive. This keeps their Page relevant, their fans interested and it gives them the opportunity to tailor their promotions and exclusives to the season. For example, Kate Spade New York’s May Facebook Exclusive is very Summer appropriate, a wicker print tote bag with a pops of pink trim. At the bottom of the app users can click the “Shop Now” button to purchase the tote!

4. Newsletter subscriber app

You know those people who get all their Christmas shopping done the day after Thanksgiving? Creating a newsletter subscriber app this Summer will put you on par with those folks! Launching your app now gives your business enough time to build a solid list of new email subscribers. Come October, November and December you’ll be prepared to tackle the holiday season with full force.

One effective way to grow your email list quickly this Summer is to encourage your current Facebook followers to become email subscribers. To do this, design a Facebook app (similar to Marie Forleo’s newsletter app below) that has a simple custom form, an effective headline and an easy-to-read list of what your business is offering in response to an email opt-in.

5. Customer appreciation app

For all those awesome people saying nice things about your business on the web, use a customer appreciation app to say “thanks!” Try using this kind of app is a more unconventional way.

For example, instead of creating this app to be featured on your business’s Timeline, publish the app, but only allow Page admins to view it. Then, when someone on Facebook– or any other social network– says something nice about your business and you see it, you can send that person a link to your “secret” customer appreciation app. Only the users that have been shared a link to your app will have access to it.

You can design your customer appreciation app to reveal a special promotion code or, like in the example we did below, use a custom form for users to fill out to receive an exclusive gift.

Speaking of customer appreciation, what about some reader appreciation? If you made it this far into the post, I want to give you a chance to win a ShortStack shirt!

In the comments below, share if you plan on launching — or already have launched — a new app this Summer. In your comment, also leave your email address or Twitter handle. I’ll contact the comment winners on Monday, May 20th via email or a Twitter direct message.

Note: If you’re reading this post after May 20th, the contest will be closed.

Good luck and I look forward to reading your comments below!

About Jim Belosic
Jim Belosic is the CEO of ShortStack, a self-service custom app design tool used to create apps for Facebook Pages, websites and mobile web browsing. ShortStack provides the tools for small businesses, graphic designers, agencies and corporations to create apps with contests and forms, fan gates, product lines and more.

The main thing I got from this was, “How did I miss National Moscato Day!?” ha!

http://twitter.com/chelseahejny Chelsea Hejny

@CreateHullabaloo:disqus that’s a valid takeaway! Haha!

http://twitter.com/julielowe Julie Lowe

I LOVE the customer appreciation app idea! Genius! I think I may just make that a “summer app” project! :-) I already have an email signup on our welcome tab. We’re going to run a Pinterest contest in July, but I will do a ShortStack FB app for a signup page, so that’s probably my next big app project since our most recent contest just ended. @julielowe

I really liked Marie Forleo’s idea of the News Letter App. I’m all for any thing that can let my fans know I’m there for them for the long haul, and I’ve been thinking of developing a Newsletter to re-purpose some of my blogs & lead fans to my blog page.

I liked all the app examples in this post. I am an old fuddy duddy who hasn’t used apps much, but I do get the concep.

http://www.facebook.com/laura.luth.9 Laura Luth

I intend to use both the “Thank You” and Newsletter apps. But so far I’m most excited about the holiday countdown app, which I intend to modify to make an “International Bacon Day” app which counts down to August 31 (yes, my company sells bacon, among other things). I may not have 12 different bacon-inspired trinkets or coupons to give away but surely I can come up with 12 or so different bacon recipes to reveal every day.

Kate Wallace

I work for a community college, and our summer students need some pizazz in their lives because they feel like they never get break. We’re planning on getting some sunglasses with our logo on them, so we’ll be launching an app to give away sunglasses for Sunglasses Day (June 27). There will probably be a few more app contests I’ll create over the summer, but that’s the one that will be coming up soon.

Kate Wallace

Oh, Twitter handle is @RochesterCTC :) sorry about that!

http://www.facebook.com/rhbrown1 Robert H Brown

Great information I am going to try some of these this summer and share them in a FB bootcamp I am teaching in June. [email protected]

IETF

As a small NPO we are always looking for new ways to engage our membership and look like one of the BIG BOYS. Maybe a subscriber app could increase our newsletter reach. Now I just need to find a developer.

http://twitter.com/chelseahejny Chelsea Hejny

Hi @86bf35d1854be705f26dde4d2382320a:disqus no need to hire a developer to build your newsletter subscriber app! If you use MailChimp, here’s a resource that walks you through the steps:http://shortstack.iljmp.com/1/shortchimp3